The Irrawaddy reported on Thursday that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic Kokang ceasefire group, ended a two-decade ceasefire with the Burmese regime. Several instances of fighting broke out along the Sino-Burmese border, aggravating the month-long refugee crisis in the northeastern Shan State.
An August 13 media release by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), and the Shan Relief and Development Committee (SRDC) described the Burmese junta’s renewed scorched earth campaign in the Shan State. The military campaign, which began on July 27, has displaced 10,000 ethnic Shan villagers. The junta’s soldiers have torched over 500 houses and 40 villages, and arrested and tortured 100 civilians.
Recently, STAND published a blog post addressing the presence of child soldiers in military combat operations by Tatmadaw, the Burmese army, and ethnic rebel groups in eastern Burma. Since then, the United Nations has taken impressive strides towards ending the abuse of children and use of child soldiers in Burma.
Recently, after hearing from activists all over the country, senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee grilled U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Gration on his strategy for peace in Sudan.
Having claimed the lives of 5.4 million people since 1998, and displaced 250,000 since August 2008, DR Congo’s crisis rages on. More and more people are getting displaced in the Eastern towns of Kivu, Rutshuru and Nyakakoma. And those who manage to return home from exile in neighboring Uganda with assistance of organizations like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) are met with mere debris left over from their torched homes. With today’s ongoing resettlement, congestion and disease have become a very big problem.
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with African leaders this week during her eleven-day, seven-nation tour of the continent, she will be forced to face a cache of challenges, from recent instability in Nigeria to the continuing plight of refugees and women in the Congo.
Two weeks ago, the Thai-Burmese border-based Yoma News Service released a report detailing the Burmese army’s widespread use of under-age soldiers in combat operations.
